Form 5472 Instructions: Line-by-Line Guide (2026)

Form 5472 carries the official title “Information Return of a 25% Foreign-Owned U.S. Corporation or a Foreign Corporation Engaged in a U.S. Trade or Business.” It is authorized by Internal Revenue Code section 6038A and, for foreign corporations, section 6038C. The current release is the December 2025 revision, and the IRS publishes a separate instructions document — the form and its instructions are two different PDFs on IRS.gov.

Before you write a single number, do two things. First, obtain an EIN: a foreign-owned single-member LLC cannot file without one, and a non-resident without an SSN applies on Form SS-4 by fax or mail. Second, confirm you have the revision that matches your tax year. Filing a 2025 return on a 2023-revision form invites processing problems. The structure has stayed stable since the 2017 expansion to disregarded entities under Treasury Decision 9796, but the line numbering is occasionally renumbered, so the right PDF matters.

The fastest way to understand the form is to see all nine parts at once, then learn which ones apply to you. The single most useful fact for a founder-owned LLC: you complete only five of the nine parts. The rest exist for large multinational corporations and almost never touch a small foreign-owned LLC.

Note the split between Part IV and Part V. Both deal with money, but they serve different filers. Part IV is the monetary-transaction grid used by a reporting corporation that is not a disregarded entity. Part V is the dedicated section for a foreign-owned U.S. disregarded entity — your LLC. A capital contribution, a loan, and a distribution for an SMLLC all land in Part V, which is the part most founders get wrong.

Part I is the identity block for your company. Unlike the later parts, you complete all of Part I — there is nothing optional here. Accuracy matters: the name and EIN you enter must match exactly what the IRS has on file from your SS-4, or the package can be rejected.

The line founders get wrong

Line 1b (the EIN) is the most common stumbling block, because many founders attempt to file before they have an EIN. You cannot. Lines 1g and 1h also confuse people: if you file just one Form 5472, line 1g is simply 1, and line 1h equals the total payments on that single form. Total assets on line 1c is frequently $0 for a dormant or startup LLC — that is acceptable, but it must reflect reality.

Part II describes the direct 25% foreign shareholder, and (if different) the ultimate indirect owner. A “25% foreign shareholder” is any non-U.S. person owning at least 25% of the entity by vote or value. For the classic founder LLC owned 100% by one non-resident, the 25% foreign shareholder is simply that founder.

Most non-resident founders have no U.S. identifying number, which is normal — you are not required to obtain an ITIN just to file Form 5472. In that case you provide a reference ID number(any consistent identifier you assign) and your home-country foreign tax ID if you have one. The point of Part II is simply for the IRS to know exactly who controls the U.S. entity.

Part III names the related party— the person or company on the other side of every reportable transaction. A “related party” includes the 25% foreign shareholder and any person related to that shareholder under IRC sections 267(b) and 707(b)(1), as well as parties related under section 482. For the typical single-owner LLC, the related party in Part III is the same personnamed in Part II, because the founder both owns the LLC and is the one moving money in and out of it.

If the LLC transacted with more than one related foreign party — say, your personal account and a separate foreign company you also own — you file a separate Form 5472 for each related party, and each form repeats Parts I and II while changing Part III. All of them attach to the single pro forma Form 1120.

Part IV is the detailed monetary-transaction grid. It lists categories such as sales of inventory, rents, royalties, interest, premiums, commissions, and amounts paid for services, with separate lines for amounts paid to and received from the related party. This is the part used by a reporting corporation that is a real corporation — not a disregarded entity.

For a foreign-owned U.S. disregarded entity, the IRS instructions direct you to report the entity's reportable transactions in Part V rather than Part IV. So a classic SMLLC whose only dealings are funding, loans, and distributions with its owner will typically leave Part IV blankand complete Part V. Part IV becomes relevant only if the LLC genuinely paid or received money for things like services or royalties from a related foreign party in a way the instructions assign there.

Part V exists specifically because of the 2017 expansion under T.D. 9796. Before then, a disregarded entity had no Form 5472 obligation. Now a foreign-owned U.S. DE must report all of its reportable transactions, and Part V is the dedicated home for them. This is the part founders most often complete incorrectly or omit entirely.

The critical concept: the trigger is a transaction, not income. The day you wire money from your personal account to fund the LLC, you create a reportable contribution. When the LLC pays you back or sends you a distribution, those are reportable too. That is why virtually every foreign-owned single-member LLC has at least one reportable transaction in its first year and almost all must file.

Report the dollar amount of each category for the year. If you contributed $10,000 to start the LLC and later took a $2,000 distribution, those amounts appear in Part V. There is no de minimis exception — a single $50 funding transfer is still a reportable transaction.

Part VI is a catch-all for transactions that are not straightforward cash movements. If you contributed equipment, intellectual property, or other property to the LLC instead of money, or there was a nonmonetary exchange with the related party, you describe it here. The instructions ask you to provide a description and the reasonable estimated fair market value of the transaction.

For most founders who simply wired cash to start the LLC, Part VI has nothing to report — the cash contribution belongs in Part V. Part VI matters when value moved in a form other than money.

The final three parts exist for large multinational corporations and are a frequent source of needless worry for small founders. Here is how they actually break down:

The base erosion and anti-abuse tax (BEAT) in Part IX targets corporations with average annual gross receipts of at least $500 million over a three-year period. A founder-owned LLC with a few thousand dollars of activity is many orders of magnitude below that threshold, so Parts VIII and IX stay blank. Part VII may require checking a box or two (for example, indicating the entity is not part of a controlled group), but it involves no complex computation for a small LLC.

Here is the full completion flow for a foreign-owned single-member LLC, in order. Each step maps directly to the parts explained above.

How you actually submit it

This is the step where the most damage is done: a foreign-owned disregarded entity cannot e-file. There is no e-file path for this package. The only two accepted methods are mail to the Austin address and fax to 855-887-7737. Keep a certified-mail receipt or a fax confirmation as dated proof, because timely filing is your only defense against the $25,000 penalty.

If you cannot finish by April 15, file Form 7004 by April 15 to extend the filing deadline to October 15. The extension moves only the filing date; a disregarded entity owes no entity-level tax, so there is nothing else to extend.

The regulations require Form 5472 to be attached to an income-tax return, and the only return available to a disregarded entity is a pro forma Form 1120. “Pro forma” means a shell return — a cover sheet, not a tax computation. You complete the top identification block of page 1 and nothing else.

If the LLC has more than one related party, attach one Form 5472 per related party to the single pro forma 1120. A typical single-owner LLC files exactly one pro forma 1120 with one Form 5472 stapled behind it.

Because a substantially incomplete Form 5472 is treated as not filed, line-level errors carry the same $25,000 penalty as never filing at all. These are the mistakes that cause the most trouble.

Every one of these is preventable. A specialist who completes Form 5472 line by line every day catches all of them, which is why foreign founders pay a flat $299 rather than risk a $25,000 penalty — and far less than the $547 charged by form5472.online or the $1,999/year charged by doola for the same filing.